May 04, 2013

High-End Gaming Coming to Firefox Browsers & the iPhone is as Addictive as Cocaine for some

This week we discovered that Mozilla is working on high-end gaming for the Firefox browser. Our report provides you with a few photos and a link to a game-demo to try out on your Mac, and hopefully your 27" iMac in full screen. And while high-end gaming is a positive experience, there's also a downside when it comes to the digital revolution, especially for the iPhone and other smartphones. Our report presents you with one tale about the dark side of download madness that onepsychotherapist frames as being the equivalent to cocaine addiction.

Mozilla is Bringing Console-Like Gaming to Firefox

Mozilla is going all out to bring Firefox users a console-like gaming experience and they've got a demo to show you just how great this is going to be. Of course the Epic Citadel demo is already available at the App Store for the iPad, but if you want to see how it will play out on your 27" iMac on Firefox, you'll now have that chance.

The Firefox demo can be found here for the Mac, PC or Linux. At one point in the download it was ask you to approve a 50MB download. You'll also be given the option of trying the demo out in full screen. Who knows, perhaps Apple is working on a solution for gaming in Safari at this very moment.

To view the graphics in a larger size, just click on each of the graphics above. Source

The iPhone: As Addictive as Cocaine

The iPhone is "as addictive as cocaine or any other drug," according to psychotherapist Steve Pope, who has been helping a man by the name of Mr. Benson cope with the addiction that cost him his relationship and job.

Although his story could apply to all smartphones, Mr. Benson's smartphone of choice was the iPhone and his story, as heard on a BBC audio segment, makes it clear that he was hooked on downloading apps at the App Store to the tune of over US $15,000.

John Benson from Blackpool in the UK discovered the hard way that his smartphone was no longer just a useful tool or periodic pastime, but something that he felt compelled to use, and something that began to take over his life.

He stopped eating, stopped bathing or shaving, and did not leave the house. In fact, there was an attempted break-in of his house at one time, but Benson did not stir from his smartphone

The psychotherapist called smartphones "a silent killer" because of the fact that they are legal and thus it can be deceptive about just how addictive they are in the hands of someone with an addictive personality. He said the problem is particularly prevalent among teenagers and children.

Many stories have been told about parents having to deal with US$2600 to $5,600 bills racked up on iTunes by their children for downloading games. In fact, Apple has just settled a lawsuit filed by parents who say their kids downloaded free games from the mobile App Store and then proceeded to rack up hefty bills buying in-game extras. If you're a parent, this could be a nightmare to deal with.

In January, Apple announced that customers had downloaded over 40 billion apps, with nearly 20 billion in 2012 alone. The App Store has over 500 million active accounts and had a record-breaking December with over two billion downloads during the month.

These are staggering numbers and Apple's iTunes and App Store is what draw so many to purchasing Apple's iDevices. The software's ease of use and extensive libraries are a real draw and in those kinds of numbers, 500 million customers, abuse and addiction is bound to raise its ugly head.

As for parents with younger children, they could always check out Apple's webpage about Parental Controls on Apple devices.

Comments

It's a boon for WebCL/OpenCL kernel security exploits. Seeing as the WebCL working group within Khronos is in talks with the WebKit Team on what they expect before even wasting time extending WebCL into WebKit2 I wouldn't brag about Firefox and high end gaming.

We're a solid 18 - 24 months before that really even happens, and then it's an absolute wasted added layer for the game engine developers who would be better served interfacing with the native OS UI frameworks in the first place, but that's Mozilla for you. Their idea of native frameworks is XUL and Javascript, so it's no surprise WebGL/WebCL being Javascript interfaces to OpenGL/OpenCL respectively is going to be a lot of overhead..